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BBC : Burmese opposition leader tra



Sunday, July 26, 1998 Published at 14:42 GMT 15:42 UK 

World: Asia-Pacific

Burmese opposition leader trapped in car

The Burmese democracy movement says its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains
stuck in her car on a road near the capital, Rangoon, three days after
being stopped at a roadblock by security forces. 

A senior figure in her National League for Democracy party, Tin Oo, said
the security forces had now moved her car from the main highway west of the
capital to a side road, and blocked it in with police vehicles. 

Aung San Suu Kyi, a colleague and two drivers have been stuck since Friday
morning, when they were prevented from heading to Bassein for a meeting
with party supporters. 

She was intending to tell party members not to obey a military order to
report to the authorities twice a day under the "Habitual Offenders Act," a
law reserved for those considered heinous criminals by the government. 

Her party members say she has been surrounded by soldiers, sandbags and
barbed wire barricades to prevent her from driving on. 

Government statement 

The government, however, said in a statement: "In fact, there existed none
of these around the car. It is their own rigid and confrontational policy
which has made them spend the night in the car." 

Although the Burmese military authorities insist she is not under
restriction, it is the third time recently they have stopped her leaving
the Rangoon area. 

On two previous trips, on 7 July and 20 July, a compromise was reached when
the military brought the people Aung San Suu Kyi was attempting to see to
her car. 

"Aung San Suu Kyi has been free to generally move about and agitate against
the government as she ever has. But of course there are limits, just as
there are anywhere as to how much unrest a person or an organisation may
stir up," the government said. 

The politician's colleagues have expressed hope that a compromise will be
reached with the country's military to end the standoff.